For more than 10 years, I have made and fished furled leaders, using the method of Claude Freaner. I have now made a fixture/machine to assist in the process. The machine is hand cranked, so I no longer need to … Continue reading →

Yesterday was a beautiful day so I decided to take a long downstream wade in the middle of the afternoon. This was after a morning morel hunt. Before starting out, I put new tippet on my leader. I use a … Continue reading →

When I designed my first reels, I intended to accomodate 5 weight lines. I set the spool capacity from measurements of some other reel, now forgotten. So yesterday I made some measurements on the line that I installed on the … Continue reading →

This post isn’t about machining fly reels, but North Branch Reels is the only blog that I have. This is about making furled leaders, a craft that takes less equipment and less skill than tying flies. Furled leaders have no … Continue reading →